is there any way to get the feel of the old trackball back? as in, when you first get it there's some resistance to the scrolling. now that my pearl is about a year old, the trackball doesn't have that "clicking" feel to it. would cleaning or replacing the ball/pads underneath do anything to restore that "clicking" feeling when scrolling the ball?

I broke both rings when following these instructions but was able to purchase a new outer ring with a trackball for $9 at Cellular National Network (cnn.cn). It didn't include the inner ring but it works fine without it. This place is in Hong Kong, so it take a while to arrive but it is very cheap and the trackball seems like it is brand new.

Ok, here is the final fix! I already made it on my device while waiting for some replies, and it worked good! ;)

The problem is the copper push plate underneath the trackball that is placed directly onto the motherboard of the device.

The problem is that underneath this plate there must be some corrosion or some kind of dust or some glue slipped due to the heat of the device (you'll understand why the presence of glue by reading ahead in the post).

In my device there was some glue and some corrosion!

The part we are talking about is a little black plastic square with a round metal plate in the centre.
This square is placed at the centre of the 4 leds and 4 trackball sensors.
The round plate we need to clean is placed up on the plastic base and is keeped still with a light brown square tape that is glued on to of all (there goes the glue!).

Here is what you need to do:

turn off the device and remove the battery, the sim card and the memory card (if used).

from just one corner of the base and with a sharp knife CAREFULLY pry the tape up so to reach the plate and pry up that too -- as you could see the plate is only touching the black square base and is keeped still by been glued at the tape on top of the base.

remove the plate from the tape WITHOUT removing complitely the tape from the square plastic base -- just slip the plate away from underneath the tape.

now act on the plate with a small metal object and scrap off everything you have underneath it -- you must act unlit you see the plate as clear as possible -- it does not matter if you scratch the metal of the plate because it will work anyway -- JUST DON'T BEND IT!!!

when finished, just clean the base contacts with a really clean piece of paper and finally blow air on it with your mouth just to remove the dust -- there sould be no dust between the plate and the base!!

replace the plate underneath the tape and up on the black square base in the same position as it was before -- just centre the base!!!

replace down the light brown tape and check if it glues back on the base corner from wich you lift it up -- instead NOT just use a little piece of black tape on the corner and on any other corner that does not glue any more.

That's it!! now it should work. It took me about 15 minutes to do everything (same time as writing this post!)

can anyone help with my trackball problem
i press the trackball and it doesnt go into a sms but shows 1 on the dial screen and after that when i press it again it show 1qe and for every click on the trackball it show more qe letters and i have no idea why did that start
sorry for bad english i hope u know what i talk about

can anyone help with my trackball problem
i press the trackball and it doesnt go into a sms but shows 1 on the dial screen and after that when i press it again it show 1qe and for every click on the trackball it show more qe letters and i have no idea why did that start
sorry for bad english i hope u know what i talk about

Thanks for the great tutorial! I just cleaned my trackball and things are working grand. I had one tip to share with other BB owners- to clean in between keys and around tiny parts- I use a wooden cuticle/manicure stick (aka "orange" stick). Dip the pointed tip in a tiny bit of alcohol and use it to remove bits of dirt and grime. Works super for cleaning in grooves, corners and between keys.

Well, if the ball has no "click" when pressing down on it then the actual contact on the circuit board has lost it's "snap." You have a defective device.

Here is my fix for putting the snap back in the click. I wouldn't do this on a phone under warranty.

On my phone (8100) the trackball worked perfectly, the problem was the contact underneath the trackball on the main board (see picture step 8 above). Part of the copper colored tape had peeled away from the switch and let dirt and lint in not allowing the trackball to do its job.

I figured it doesn't work now so I couldn't make it worse. Take the battery out or you wont be able to see what you are doing with the LED blasting holes in your eyeballs. I took forceps and peeled it the rest of the way off. What I ended up with was a small square piece of tape with a smaller round slightly dish shaped piece of metal.

I cleaned the switch contact point on the main board. I then peeled the tape from the small round metal disk. I took some electrical tape (hoping to find something better later) and cut it into a small square. Placed the small metal disk on the tape and trimmed it a little more so it wouldn't cover the LEDs. Then I positioned it over the switch, pressed it down (you could use a pencil eraser) to the switch base. Put the battery and trackball back in.

Guess what happened then. No....it worked just like new.

Even if it came loose the magnets would catch it and keep it from falling out. I am hoping to find some other kind of tape that is thinner but will stay put for the long haul. If you have an idea for something better please post it.

....i took apart and cleaned the tracker ball like everyone recommended. it got 3 of my 4 directions working. i found i had lint rapped around the arm of one of the black directional wheels. i got to that by very carefully taking a needle under the silver metal tab right above that arm. i got a ton of lint from that arm and now it works. hope this helps!

Good stuff!! Excellent additional comments too! Glad I didn't get rid of the alcohol and Qtips after getting rid of all the cassette players (!)

My wife has a Pearl (which is what this applied to) and I have a Curve. My battery overheated in the Curve and took out the trackball circuit, so sometimes you do have to replace the phone.

Thanks so much!

Z

Quote:

Originally Posted by dmcman73

Great tutorial but I would like to add a few comments to it if I may.

- Before attempting to clean your trackball shut the phone off and remove the battery so you donxxx8217;t risk shorting out anything on the exposed sensors located under the trackball when you remove it.

EDIT: Just realized that there is indeed a metal clip on the older style Pearls but not on the newer ones.- After removing the plastic chrome ring from around the trackball, you do not need to remove the metal retaining ring located around the trackball. The whole assembly should just pop out by turning the phone around. The metal ring only holds the trackball in the white xxx8220;cagexxx8221; that also holds the rollers in place. If you need to remove the retaining ring to clean the rollers and ball, take out the assembly first and then remove the metal clip from the sides of the cage assembly. Youxxx8217;ll see the clips that hold the ring on, just gently pry them away front the plastic cage.

- Yes, the little black rollers are magnets which interact with the small magnetic proximity sensors inside the phone. Unfortunately after cleaning them with Alcohol you remove the very small amount of lubrication that is on them. Since the magnets come into close contact with the sensors, it will sometimes prevent the magnets from rotating hence the reason why some people have to keep repeating this cleaning procedure almost on a weekly basis or the cleaning just doesnxxx8217;t work for them.

After cleaning the track ball by using this guide, before popping the track ball back into your phone, get a clean Q-Tip and a can of Dry Silicone lubricating spray. Do not use WD-40 or any other type of spray lube, use only dry Silicone spray as this stuff will dry (so it wonxxx8217;t drip) and leaving a lubricated surface. Spray some of it onto the Q-Tip, shake the Q-Tip out to remove any excess then gently and lightly apply the lubricant directly to the 4 magnetic rollers ONLY. Do not apply it to the actual trackball, only the black magnets. Also, don't use to much of it just enough to "dampen" the black magnets.

Once done re-assemble and rotate the track ball around to dispers the lubricant, you may find that you will have to apply another coating of lubricant after this step, just repeat (don't clean it) the lubrication step.

I've done this to my blackberry and afterwards, it works better then new.